zjzpp163/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Just how bad is China’s air pollution? So bad that its effects are felt in the United States.

For years, scientists have warned about environmental and health problems caused by Chinese industries that go largely unregulated. But now, The New York Times reports that emissions from China actually cross the Pacific Ocean due to global winds called westerlies and add to the pollution in the Western United States.

This discovery was made by an international team of nine environmental scholars, who published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Furthermore, the Times says the study reveals that the high global demand for consumer goods, particularly in the U.S., and the manufacture of these exports adds to China’s pollution problems and, subsequently, in this country although on a much smaller scale.

For instance, the scholars note, “Los Angeles experiences at least one extra day a year of smog that exceeds federal ozone limits because of nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide emitted by Chinese factories making goods for export.”